Saturday, January 31, 2015

Ok nevermind, no one here talks like that, but I thought it would make for a nice entry line...no?...ok.

The first week of my adventure flew by in a flash. I decided that I would try my best to do weekly updates every Friday (failed on my first try, didn't I, seeing as it's Saturday Tuesday the next Saturday now ... I am really bad at this), so here was my first week in the USA:

Thursday:

Thursday was basically flying. Our first flight from Munich to Houston was 11 hours long and it left at around 9.30 am, so we were up by 5 am (we live a little while away from the airport) The flight was surprisingly pleasant I must say. Even the food was edible. I went for the lasagna which (even though it was overdone) was quite alright. We had vanilla ice cream for dessert and around two hours before landing we had a panini, which was also good, even though I really don't want to know what it was made of. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the airplane food, I was waaay too hungry (sorry). I'll try to do better on my next long flight :).The pictures I did take were gorgeous though. We flew over Greenland at dawn and it was breathtaking. But see for yourself:

We arrived in Houston in the afternoon, went through immigration where the officer naturally gave us some grief and then we took our connecting flight to Tyler. The plane was tiny. Literally. There was one row of seats with two seats and one with a single seat, all together maybe 40 seats. Cute. And that was basically it. We went to Applebees seeing as we were starving after all that flying (it's hard work doing nothing for such a long time!) and then to bed.

Friday:

Shopping. What more can I say? Rice crispies, York Peppermint Patties, Quaker Oats granola bars, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Hollister.....you name it, we shopped it. Well we didn't buy too much, it was mostly just "aww I remember this!", "Omg, they have that now?" "Targets smell the same everywhere, don't they?!". I loved every minute of it. But I must say, the highlights were the biscuits in the morning and then....PANERA BREAD at night. Can we just take a minute and thank whoever invented Panera? I think that if I could, I would live in one. One bite of the Chipotle Chicken Sandwich and I was in food heaven. Oh my goodness, I don't think it's normal how much I love that sandwich. And they do pasta now too!! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better.... *begin daydreaming about Panera...stomach starts rumbling*.

Saturday:

On Saturday we took it slow. Started off with some doughnuts (yumm!!), watched some Food Network (American television, I love you), had coffee and cake (Red Velvet cheese cake anyone?) and at night we went to a Mexican Restaurant and the movies afterward. I don't think anyone will understand the bliss of going to the movies and watching a movie in its original soundtrack until they've had to face the dubbed versions in Germany. Sigh. We watched The Wedding Ringer, I must say, it was pretty funny albeit predictible. Driving home we had an ice cream sundae in mind, but unfortunately a small accident caused by an irresponsible person forced us onto a curb and we got to see the american police in live action. The officer was very nice, and seeing as it was none of our fault and we couldn't have reacted any better it was ok and we drove home, had our sundae and watched Pompeii on Netflix (it's always so sad when the hot guys die at the end. Especially when they have such nice accents).

Yes, that is me posing with my new jeans and fluffy jacket...I'm such a model.

Sunday:

Sunday was spent riding Mustangs on a 1,000 Acre Ranch. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. The weather was great, the company as well and let's face it: Riding to a ranch in Texas in an authentic pick-up truck, saddling up some Mustangs and riding out onto the "wilderness" (fenced in ranch I mean)...can it get any more Texas-esque? The only thing missing was the barbeque on the open fire and an old Cowboy telling stories or playing the banjo. That would have been legendary. (I don't think I will ever be able to write the word legendary again without thinking of Barney Stinson...but back to the point) It was a great day.
Another thing worth mentioning: Whataburger...and their Ketchup. 'Nuf said.

Monday:

We had to get up early. Again. Wheeee. We flew from Tyler to Houston to Denver to Rapid City. I must say, I am becoming such a pro at flying. The only thing that bummed me out was that all they had to eat in Houston was breakfast (it was like 8 am, but hey, I would've LOVED some chinese food or something). Arriving in Rapid we got greeted very nicely, drove "home" and got shown around. We were pretty tired so we didn't do too much that day.

Tuesday:

The plus side of getting up at six am? Getting to see the beautiful sunrise every day :)

From this day on: get up at 6 am. The horses are hungry :) But it's ok, cause we get to feed them off the flatbed of the pickup. It's so cool that I'll even get up early for it :D You feel like a real cowgirl doing it. Yeah, I'm too cool. We did some chores that day which we've been doing almost every day since. Feed the horses, chickens and cats, water the horses, chickens and cats and then some chores around the yard. For dinner we had very good one-pan-pasta. Must remember the recipe.

Wednesday:

We were in Rapid City all day, visited the mall (I have quite a list of stuff I'd like to buy. But I'm restraining myself...for now), ate at Applebees and just had a quiet day, finishing it off with chores.

And that was my first week in the US. At this point I'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to Melissa, who is basically like my american aunt. You are such an amazing person, and coming to visit you and Oma Hannelore and Opa John is like visiting family. Thank you for everything. I can't wait to see you all again.

Ok, I'll start working on the next week as soon as I have time...maybe I'll be done before next Saturday ;) I love you guys reading this (even if it's just you mom, I love you so much, hang in there with the two guys ;) ).

'Til next time,

Again...yes, that is me. This time in a mirror. Advice to the unknowing people out there: Don't give me a camera...thats what you'll get.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

I'm writing this at five am in a basement bedroom in a tiny town in South Dakota. Huh? Right, well the five am thing wasn't exactly planned. We had planned to get up at six am and go upstairs to eat breakfast etc. What we forgot was that they are one hour behind Texas time in South Dakota, so when we got upstairs everything was still dark. I have to admit, I'm kinda mad that I could've had another whole hour of sleep, but whatever. But let me start at the beginnning.

I graduated school last year and as I already mentioned planned on starting to study right away. But then I didn't get accepted until the very last minute and by then I had already looked at my options on how to spend one year before starting to study next (well this) year. A friend of mine from school and I found this website called workaway.info, which is a great platform where you can look for hosts in practically any country you want. It's so easy to use and informative, I'd definitely recommend it. It's actually so fun that sometimes I just browse through the hosts and go like "woah, a beach hotel in the Bahamas! Nice!". The gist of the programm is like woofing. You work four to five honest work hours a day and in exchange you get food and accomodations for free. Pretty good deal in my books.

Which brings us to South Dakota. There is a Mustang Conservancy here and I've personally always had a soft spot for Mustangs so it was ideal. And this is were we'll be spending the next three months. Afterwards we will go to a boarding ranch in British Columbia for another one and a half months and in June we'll be back home in Germany.

I've thought about how best to keep you updated and I'm going to try (!!!) to post a weekly summary of everything we've gotten up to.

Sorry this post has been so text- heavy, I don't have any pictures on my laptop yet and as I said its 5 am and I'm just too plain lazy right now to upload them. I'm sorry.